The Kentucky Resolutions of 1797, (which were drafted by Mr. Jefferson,) declare, "that to this compact [the federal constitution] each state acceded as a state, and is an integral party." North American Review, Oct. 1630, p. 501, 545. In the resolutions of the senate of South Carolina, in Nov. 1817, it is declared, "that the constitution of the United States is a compact between the people of the different states with each other, as separate and independent sovereignties." In Nov. 1799 the Kentucky legislature passed a resolution, declaring, that the federal states had a right to judge of any infraction of the constitution, and, that a nullification by those sovereignties of all unauthorized arts done under color of that instrument is the rightful remedy. North American Review, Id. 503. Mr. Madison, in the Virginia Report of 1800, re-asserts the right of the states, as parties, to decide upon the unconstitutionality of any measure. Report, p. 6, 7, 8, 9. The Virginia legislature, in 1829, passed a resolution, declaring, that "the constitution of the United States being a federative compact between sovereign states, in construing which no common arbiter is known, each state has the right to construe the compact for itself."[a 1] Mr. Vice President Calhoun's letter to Gov. Hamilton of Aug. 28, 1832, contains a very elaborate exposition of this among other doctrines. Mr. Dane, in his Appendix, (§ 3, p. 11,) says, that for forty years one great party has received the constitution, as a federative compact among the states, and the other great party, not as such a compact, but in the main, national and popular. The grave debate in the Senates of the United States, on Mr. Foot's resolution, in the winter of 1830, deserves to be read for its able exposition of the doctrines maintained on each side. Mr. Dane makes frequent references to it in his Appendix.—4 Elliot's Debates, 315 to 330.
- ↑ 3 American Annual Register; Local History, 131.
